Jobo's latest Giga Vu: the Pro Extreme

Jobo's Giga Vu line has always been primarily targeted at photographers who need portable storage and viewing capabilities, but the devices' Linux foundations and open SDK have made them pretty hacker-friendly as well. Both camps should be happy about Jobo's latest entry, the Giga Vu Pro Extreme, which adds support for Jobo's photoGPS unit, bumps capacities up to 160GB, and comes with an SD/SDHC adapter. Apart from that, it's basically the same Giga Vu as always: 3.7-inch VGA screen, support for over 100 RAW formats, loupe viewing modes with dust detection, TV-out, PictBridge support, and a dash of PMP features, including support for MPEG 4 video. No word on when these will actually be hitting shelves, but you'd better start saving your pennies: Jobo's listing the 80GB Pro Extreme at $599, the 120GB at $749, and the $160GB model at a whopping $899.

[lothar @ Oct 31st 2007 12:51PM]

Holy Jesus 160GB for $899!!!!

Thats beyond insane.

[The Pepto Pimp @ Oct 31st 2007 1:20PM]

Come on, it's 2007, where the HDMI output?

[zorg @ Oct 31st 2007 1:45PM]

The predecessor (Evolution) was a big disappointment. See the storage forum at dpreview for various threads about problems. I'm surprised to see them touting video when they appeared to back away from video claims on the Evolution after it became clear that only short clips could be played. On some discussions, Jobo people said they were really only touting it for viewing still images.

Also, the video out was limited to 640x480 no matter the resolution of the monitor: hardly ideal for high-res photos.

Finally, there's been almost no activity around the Linux underpinnings on the Sourceforge page, so I'm not sure that people really see it as a viable Linux computer.

[The Pepto Pimp @ Oct 31st 2007 2:28PM]

640x480? What is this, 1997?

[M @ Oct 31st 2007 3:35PM]

It sounds interesting but there will be teh obvious comparison with teh Epson P-5000. This, on paper looks better, but is the execution really better since it is more expensive.

HDMI would be nice, but 640-480 is silly.

However, decoding Raw files rather than viewing embedded jpegs is a huge plus.

I can't wait for a real review.
M

[SteveMB @ Oct 31st 2007 5:12PM]

"and the $160GB model at a whopping $899."

[corey @ Nov 1st 2007 10:37AM]

When did they start designing the look of it ? 97 98 ? not sure.